"Oxymel of Squill" wrote in message
reenews.net...
does anyone use the seed sowing method popular briefly many years ago of
sprouting the seeds then mixing them with wallpaper paste and oozing it
along the veg bed? It was supposed to help germination and spread out the
seeds to minimise thinning. Obviously use a paste without fungicide in it.
Are there disadvantages to it, as I never hear about it now?
cheers

Never tried it myself........seems you can use jelly as well :~)

Germinate in Jelly

There are various ways to plant very fine seeds, such as carrots, turnips,
etc., to try to space them evenly within their garden rows. Using plain
gelatine in a dish soap bottle actually allows you to see how many seeds get
dispensed per inch. Remove the pop-up part from the bottle cap and mix one
package of plain gelatine with 1 tablespoon of warm water until the gelatine
is dissolved. The gelatine needs to be thick enough so the seeds will stay
somewhat suspended in the gel, yet liquid enough to be squeezed out of the
bottle evenly. To get the right number of seeds, add a small amount of seeds
to the gel, shake well, and practise squeezing out rows onto a cookie sheet,
increasing the number of seeds as needed. When you've got the right
proportion you can sow the seeds in the garden, squeezing the mixture out of
the bottle as you move down the row, and shaking the bottle to keep the
seeds evenly distributed in the gel. Cover the seeds with soil as
recommended on the seed packet. You can have your garden planted in no time
at all and the gel seems to promote faster germination.